Investing in a coach will cut your learning curve immensely, saving you tons of time, effort and frustration.

It was not my peers in the same boat, it was people and services with the means.I believe being late to the game, experiencing the results of poor choices, gave me an immense appreciation for those that are able to help raise others up and gave me the strong desire to become such a person myself, within the community.The way I see it, this business is a means to an end, to be of service.

Nonetheless,  I appreciate his efforts immensely and his advice even more.Now, I am in search of a good property management company here in Memphis with a good reputation.

If you are looking for someone to estimate rehab costs, you'll need to hire someone with a significant amount of skill and the additional rare trait of the ability to make the judgment call as to the cost of what they cannot see if they can't get inside the property.If you are looking for someone to take the acquisition process off of your hands your risk increases immensely because these folks don't have any money on the line.

Even if the agent is not presenting the offer (Which I doubt) it is not out of laziness, as we are just talking about hitting a few buttons on your cell phone.I also agree immensely with @Jay Hinrichs about the idea of people who have been through 10 agents really need to look in the mirror.What @Rich Ng describes is just shocking.  

It would stink to live on the East Coast, get a consulting job on the West Coast and have a 6-hour plane ride every time you had to go into the office.Texas is seeing some pretty strong growth, but it's also immense, so there are places you can go, still be near an airport, and invest for cash flow if that's your thing.The problem with the center of the country is that it runs very red politically.

He's helped me immensely and I'm hoping it's the beginning of a long and profitable business relationship.

But I think having everything documented in writing, especially the repair bill showing damage, will help immensely, especially if the tenant does not want a judgment on his record.   

If we didn't have all the risk it would be immensely more palatable to my wife.

I was living on the west coast at the time, so their advice on finding a new PM helped immensely, and the new management company went out of their way to secure all my old rents, security deposits, keys, etc., without me having to fly in, and I've been with them ever since.